Apex Video Converter Home Edition Editor's Review

According to the producer, this program is supposed to "convert the formats of your movies as you like". It converts video files to AVI, MPEG, MOV, WMV, iPod, or MP4. If you try to configure the program, you'll realize that you can't choose the 'Original' mode for the 'Output Video Width/Height' unless a video is loaded into the program. So if you want to configure the settings before opening the movie, some settings can't be made.

If you start the preview, then click on the progress bar of the preview window, it will stop the preview. Moreover, the preview can't be restarted, until you restart the program or reload the video file. When I tried to convert a MPG to an MP4, the program seemed to have worked instantly. In reality, it just created a file with the size of 0 bytes. When I tried to convert the MPG to an AVI, I started the conversion and I noticed that it would take half the movie's playing time to process it. Therefore, since the movie was 3 hours long, I'd have to wait one hour and a half for the result. Then, I tried to stop the conversion, by pressing the 'Stop' button, which was the former 'Convert' button. I was surprised to notice that even when the button changed to 'Convert' again, the conversion process didn't stopped. Next, I pressed the 'Convert' button again and the conversion stopped, but only to create a new file and start a new conversion. I could only stop the conversion, when I 'force quit' the program's execution.

In my opinion, its user interface isn't appropriate for a program of this kind. The menu on the right side of the screen is barely visible. In addition, on the bottom of the main screen is a link to the producer's web site that doesn't work.

Pluses:

Drawbacks / flaws: There's an annoying sound that you can't escape. You also can't stop the conversion, unless you force the program to stop. It's expensive.

In conclusion: Unless you have some spare time and you don't know what to do with it, I don't recommend you to try this software. It annoyed me a lot.

version reviewed: 3.91